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Daily Archives: August 1, 2012

* A reporter writes of his experience covering today’s Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day hoopla:

I have never felt so alien in my own country as I did today while covering the restaurant’s supporters. The level of hatred, unfounded fear and misinformed people was astoundingly sad. I can’t even print some of the things people said. …

It was like broken records of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and a recitation of half-truths and outright lies.

Last Friday’s edition of The Retrospect, a South Jersey weekly, had a story about a town commissioner and a payroll problem — a piece that someone didn’t want the locals to read.

“We don’t know who did it, but it seems the person bought up as many copies as he or she could and deposited them in the dumpster at the Haddon Township Municipal Building,” writes The Retrospect’s Mark Swanson.

Publisher Brett Ainsworth says trashing the papers “wasn’t effective” because most people subscribe to the paper; newsstands and honor boxes account for only 500 of the 5,500 Retrospects sold weekly.

“We tried to ask [Robert] Redford and [Annie] Leibovitz about the projects” that brought them to the Washington Post newsroom on Tuesday, write the Post’s “Reliable Source” columnists, “but they weren’t talking to reporters.”

Times-Picayune editor Jim Amoss tells readers that “we’ve heard your requests and concerns about the website” and that the changes unveiled today are “part of a continuing effort to respond. More changes are coming soon as the site continues to evolve.”

The editor points out that the new color scheme is “drawn from the unique shades of our city’s historic houses and buildings.”

Meanwhile, Times-Picayune sister newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has introduced the web design used by other Advance newspapers and readers are — of course! — complaining not pleased. “It will take a little time to get used to, it’s a different design,” says cleveland.com editor-in-chief Denise Polverine. “But our hope is that when you start using the site, you will find it much easier to use.”

An Associated Press employee sent this email: “AP is sending fewer than 10 print reporters and editors to the Democratic and Republican conventions this year, a dramatic reduction from previous years.” The staffing from earlier conventions? “Don’t have exact number. Say +/- 20 print reporters and editors in previous years.”

I passed this by AP spokesman Paul Colford. He says the tipster’s claim refers “only to national reporters without taking into account locally based staffers, campaign-bus staffers, video journalists etc.”

Colford adds:

We will have fewer people than last time, yes. We expect to bring more than 30 staffers across all platforms to each convention while still providing convention coverage as strong as we’ve delivered from the campaign trail this season.

Here’s a comment from AP Senior Managing Editor for U.S. News Mike Oreskes:

“The conventions are set-piece events and we have planned the staffing carefully to provide considerable coverage without wasting time and talent that can be better applied to other parts of the campaign (where by the way we have been very strong).”

“What’s something that is common knowledge at your workplace that will be mind-blowing to the rest of us?” Quora users are asked. One anonymous contributor wrote:

Public Radio: No one is that eloquent.

The majority of radio interviews (especially public radio) are pre-recorded, edited, tightened to take out “uhs” and “hmmms” and generally cleaned up before they air. Very rarely is a public official or person of interest put on live in news radio except during breaking news (and usually only reporters go live).

This goes for the host as well. All of their breaths and stumbles are edited out to give them that polished, perfect pitch. Also, quite often the host and guest are not face-to-face, but in studios in different cities.

EDIT ADDED 7/28:

Since this is getting a lot of upvotes, I do want to clarify that hosts do, however, give live reads when a show first airs to transition between the edited reporter pieces and interviews. I did not mean to give the impression that absolutely no public radio is live.

But often the version of a show you hear on your home member station, if it is not being aired directly from the first, live airing, is a second or third feed that has been cleaned up and corrected.

iPad users get free access to six New York Times sections — Sports, Fashion, Home & Garden, Travel, T Magazine and Olympics — through August 12, thanks to Ralph Lauren, which the Times says has “never done a sponsorship of this magnitude with any other media outlet.”

From the Times’ solo sponsorship announcement:

Features include:
· 6 unlocked NYTimes.com sections including: Sports, Fashion, Home & Garden, Travel, T Magazine and Olympics
· Ads are heavily tied to the Olympics. Within the magalogue, a pop-up splash page will announce new medal winners.
· Ads will be featured on every section front and on every other article page within the app. Every session will feature an interstitial.
· Ads will open up a magalogue with six sections including: U.S. Olympics, U.S. Open Golf, Wimbledon, The Open Championship, Black Watch Polo and U.S. Open Tennis.
· The sections will feature articles, videos, a “Meet the Athletes” section and e-commerce.